I've had the acting bug since I was, like, five. But growing up, I saw how people treated me differently when they knew who my father was, even the stuff I did on the field. Sometimes I'd rush for 100 yards, and the headline would be, 'Denzel's son runs for 100 yards.' That's where the suppression of that bug came from.

The injury that ended my time in football turned out to be serendipitous. I tore my Achilles while training for a pending tryout with the New York Giants, and when it snapped, so did my career, basically. That's what led me to gain the confidence to get into the acting world on my own terms.

Coming from a football background, when everybody is doing their job and operating on such a high level, it only motivates you to do the same.

I was ignorant before I did my research of a lot of African American police officers out there who are doing their job and doing it the right way.

My early memories are full of football talk around the house, of Dad standing on the terraces at Ayresome Park, of the occasional precious new pair of boots.

If it wasn't for football, a lot of the best times of my life, my brother's life, my dad's life, wouldn't exist.

As a young girl, football is where I met the people who, to this day, are my best friends. It is also where I began to learn about the important relationship between hard work, teamwork, and fun.

Working with Brando was fun. It was like a tennis match. We played unbelievably well together.